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Comparative Study
. 2020 Oct 21;58(11):e01824-20.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.01824-20. Print 2020 Oct 21.

Self-Collected Anterior Nasal and Saliva Specimens versus Health Care Worker-Collected Nasopharyngeal Swabs for the Molecular Detection of SARS-CoV-2

K E Hanson  1   2   3 , A P Barker  2   3 , D R Hillyard  2   3 , N Gilmore  4 , J W Barrett  4 , R R Orlandi  5 , S M Shakir  2   3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Self-Collected Anterior Nasal and Saliva Specimens versus Health Care Worker-Collected Nasopharyngeal Swabs for the Molecular Detection of SARS-CoV-2

K E Hanson et al. J Clin Microbiol. .

Abstract

We prospectively compared health care worker-collected nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) to self-collected anterior nasal swabs (ANS) and straight saliva for the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 354 patients. The percent positive agreement between NPS and ANS or saliva was 86.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 76.7 to 92.9%) and 93.8% (95% CI, 86.0 to 97.9%), respectively. The percent negative agreement was 99.6% (95% CI, 98.0 to 100.0%) for NPS versus ANS and 97.8% (95% CI, 95.3 to 99.2%) for NPS versus saliva. More cases were detected by the use of NPS (n = 80) and saliva (n = 81) than by the use of ANS (n = 70), but no single specimen type detected all severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections.

Keywords: SARS-Cov-2; alternative specimen; anterior nasal swab; nasopharyngeal swab; saliva.

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Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Qualitative result comparisons across all specimen types. The numbers represent the numbers of patients. Abbreviations: +, positive; −, negative.
FIG 2
FIG 2
RT-PCR cycle threshold (CT) values for discordant NPS, saliva, and ANS specimen sets. A three-way comparison of CT values is shown, with solid lines linking RT-PCR results across specimen types.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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